1. Sŗ Rāmakŗşna Paramhamsa 1836-1886

2. How is he seen by devotees? This is both a picture and a murti, in that Rāmākŗşna is now an object of devotion. Simple sannyasin, renouncer of the world.

3. Mysticism. Mysticism is the search for contact with the divine in this lifetime. Common to all religious traditions. Uses specific techniques; Intense meditation \ prayer. Self-mortification \ asceticism Fasting. Rāmākŗşna was a mystic, in that he dedicated his life to achieving a unity with the divine.

4. Kāli Rāmākŗşna was a temple priest in the temple of Kāli in Calcutta. He pursued a type of bhakti, in which he became infatuated with Kāli as the divine mother. He had received little or no training in this pursuit. It arose spontaneously from within.

5. His closeness to Kāli soon reached a stage where he was aware of the divine nature permeating the physical; he worshipped a temple cat as Kāli, seeing the divine within, and reached a stage where he was unable even to pluck leaves for worship, seeing the divine within the tree. This single pointed awareness, is of course, at the heart of Advaita Vedanta; that everything is really divine.

6. Bhairavi Brahmani A guru who expanded his education through tantric bhakti; where imagination is used to appreciate the reality of the divine: saddhanas are activities designed to do this. “He played with baby Rama in the waters of Ganges; becoming Radha, he experienced pangs of separation from Sri Krishna; Mother Sita presented him with the most beatific smile; and sadhana of servant attitude of Hanuman brought out monkey-like physical and psychological changes in his and mind.”

7. World religions. Rāmākŗşna found that the same principle could be succesfully applied and experienced outside the Hindu tradition, and worked in the same way with Islamic, Christian and Sikh religious figures. All for him, were manifestations of one ultimate reality.

8. Tota Puri An advaita guru, who eventually helped Rāmākŗşna go beyond the dualistic mysticism that he had so far experienced to an experience of pure monism; no differentiation between observer and observed. Devotees suggest that he showed mankind what it was; divine!

9. Influence Bizzarely, on his own, almost none. Rāmākŗşna did not write, speak, or proselytise; concentrating on his spiritual discipline. He did attract disciples, one of whom was to make Rāmākŗşna influential in India, and round the world.

10. Swami Vivekananda Disciple of Rāmākŗşna, who took his work, and expounded it for the whole world. Spoke at the World Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893.

11. Vivekananda’s message. Vivekananda was himself a mystic, but was also a skilled communicator, and saw the universal application of Vedanta as the answer to all mankind’s problems. Like Gandhi he argued that the best way to serve God was to serve one’s fellow man. Wrote books on the four principle yogas. Spiritual director Founded Rāmākŗşna order to propagate these views.

12. Chicago The first World Parliament of Religions was rocked by Vivekananda who presented Rāmākŗşna’s view of universal vedanta as “Hinduism”. Thus forcing the west to take Hinduism seriously as a spiritual path, indeed, the oldest and most universal path.

13. Rāmākŗşna math Order of teaching monks dedicated to: Realisation of Advaita Vedanta. Devotees of Rāmākŗşna Education of all. Spreading Rāmākŗşna’s view of unity of religions.

14. Influence. Rāmākŗşna’s influence is vast, due to Vivekananda: Monastic order & education. Hindu self identity Confirmation of orientalist vision of Hinduism; ur-spirituality for the world, the “mystic east”.